As of October, the FRA has recorded 742 incident reports for train derailments in 2023. Additionally, railroads reported 59 collisions, 12 fires, and 138 highway-rail-crossing incidents, which could include cars or any other vehicles or people at the crossing site.
Since 1975, an average of 2,808 trains have derailed each year, with a peak of 9,400 derailments in 1978.
Minnesota’s group is approaching this a smart way, from the local up. They’re not spending much time in the high-profile positions; they’re tackling local elections. Gets people used to the idea, and they stack higher and higher positions as they’re going. It’ll take time, but starting at the top and working down is a lot harder.
It sounds like they’re taking a mental health care based approach which is probably the most likely to prevent recidivism. People who commit mass shootings aren’t sound of mind (neither are lawmakers that prevent common sense gun control, but that’s a separate consideration).
Marijuana was considered a black person drug. If you didn’t know, the US kinda hates black people, statistically speaking. It’s pretty fucked up!
John Ehrlichman, Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon said the following:
“You want to know what this [war on drugs] was really all about? The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying?
“We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news.”
"Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
Mexico’s Taam Ja’ Blue Hole is the deepest known underwater sinkhole in the world, researchers have discovered — and they haven’t even reached the bottom yet....
I once knew a guy who spelunked and wrote cave-mapping (not underwater cave) software as a hobby. Had another friend who worked on automated cave-navigating robots.
It’s a surprising pain to do.
Above ground, surveyors can typically use landmarks. But underground, you don’t have long lines of sight.
GPS doesn’t work underground, as you can’t receive through rock.
Errors in inertial navigation can add up over time, if you’ve ever seen an automated-mapping robot without some kind of absolute reference have error build up – the map twists and distorts.
While it’s not specific to being underground, being underground can, if there’s iron deposits nearby, dick with compass accuracy.
The guy who wrote the cave-mapping software did some sort of mechanism where you’d take the longest lines of sight you could from cave wall to cave wall, and then measure angles between laser beams, ping-pong off walls through the cave.
I don’t know how well even lasers work in underwater caves. My understanding is that part of the reason that cave diving can become really dangerous is that if you stir up silt, visibility can head towards zero, which can leave cave divers with no way to see anything and no obvious route to the surface. I’d imagine that silt could also cause problems for laser beams.
I mean in that particular example it’s specifically a limit that was put on our democracy. Which is to say, make sure your state joins the national popular vote compact if they haven’t already:
That’s in fact why some universities patent their research stuff in the first place, to ensure nobody else can. They’ll then make it a policy to take 0€ in licensing fees, but this precludes anybody else from starting to lock the tech behind money.
Source: My uni back in the days had a few dozen patents for exactly this reason, too.
I have a soft spot for flowering trees, and these always remind me of fun times by the coast (plus some part of me thinks they look like a delicious forbidden food).
Reminder... (lemmy.world)
Anon wants to ride a zeppelin (sh.itjust.works)
That's not troubling at all (lemmy.world)
Single Issue Voters will save the world! (lemmy.world)
Parishioners stopped teen with a rifle from entering church with 60 children inside (www.nbcnews.com)
Children were inside St. Mary Magdalen in Abbeville, Louisiana, waiting to take their first Holy Communion, the church said....
'Underwater bicycle' propels swimmers forward at superhuman speed (newatlas.com)
cross-posted from: lemmy.smeargle.fans/post/159545...
US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana in a historic shift, AP sources say (apnews.com)
Deepest blue hole in the world discovered, with hidden caves and tunnels believed to be inside | Live Science (www.livescience.com)
Mexico’s Taam Ja’ Blue Hole is the deepest known underwater sinkhole in the world, researchers have discovered — and they haven’t even reached the bottom yet....
My eyes! (sh.itjust.works)
This is what the continued existence of almost 250 years of democracy is up against (tesseract.dubvee.org)
Edit: Image is from this Reuters article deconstructing Trump’s latest rally.
Are things just shittier or are we more aware of shittiness?
The Bear is a masterpiece (lemmy.world)
Vaccine breakthrough means no more chasing strains (news.ucr.edu)
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FULL SPEED AHEAD!!! (cdn.ecohustler.com)
Don't worry about it (lemmy.world)
Biden administration set to greenlight $18 billion sale of F-15 fighter jets to Israel (edition.cnn.com)
What is your favorite flower and why?
Red spider lily is my favorite because of its blood red hue and symbolism.
[Mr Lovenstein] The only response (lemmy.world)
Website...
What's the best sandwich in the world?
According to you. GO!
Dad Loses Patience After Providing Several Seconds Of Emotional Support (www.theonion.com)
Thoughts on the game Timberborn (store.steampowered.com)
Has anybody given this game a try? I’ve been considering it for a while, but money is tight. Curious if it was worth it....